O'Connor's Public House has old world charm

There was Robert O'Connor, the day after his namesake ale house on Railroad Street in New Milford opened for business, but a few minutes before it opened for the day, standing in the morning sun and washing the storefront windows.

Maybe it was the lovely spring weather, or the excitement of having a new business, or something else pleasant on his mind, but he seemed to be truly enjoying the activity most others look at as a chore--washing windows.

At first glance, Mr. O'Connor appears to be a formidable presence, an Irishman with Popeye arms and training as a boxer, but in front of O'Connor's Public House that morning he grinned brightly and greeted the people walking through his new neighborhood.

"Well, I'd say hygiene is huge for me," Mr. O'Connor later told The Litchfield County Times, still smiling. "Everything has to be clean."

Advertisement

It's a secret, albeit an obvious one, to success. As he washed windows, a few friends and employees inside O'Connor's Public House--it took over all the space of the two-part Dan's Dining Car--were wiping down surfaces, arranging bottles and getting wood to sparkle.

In the wood-finished pub without the dividing wall that separated Dan's bar and its dining room, those friends and employees were laboring to ensure that the new place met the cleanliness and full-bodied veneer of Mr. O'Connor's most reputable other pubs.

Yes, this is not his first, or his second but actually his sixth place. They spread out between New York and Connecticut, and his family owns one in Ireland.

"Only the second day and it is a hit," he said, looking around at the place bountiful with treasures. "I think it is our best work yet."

There's plenty of antique items to lend the proper ambiance, things like old books and mugs and cans that loom overhead. Off in the corner is the trademark bathtub, because the man huge on hygiene really likes those old bathtubs.

Nothing is flea market and thrift store finds. In Mr. O'Connor's words they are "authentic," which means that in his thick Irish brogue they are "au-TEN-tic."

There are literally hundreds of these characteristic knick-knacks apportioned among his half-dozen places. Mr. O'Connor is not sure he can recall where he has gotten each piece, but asked off-the-cuff if he knows the origin of a tin bucket displayed overhead, with the label "Callie's Pretzel Factory," it takes only a moment for him to remember that little shop in upstate New York.

It's all part of the detail, which is to him another component in the continued success of his chain.

"It's all about the attention to detail, and anything we get wrong we fix it quickly," said Mr. O'Connor.

As the venerable host of trivia pub quiz games--a superb engagement for bringing in customers who want to test their intelligence quotient without judgment--Tom Cairney works for Mr. O'Connor at a few of his locations. As someone who has worked with him in a common goal, bringing in clientele, Mr. Cairney described Mr. O'Connor as a diligent worker who understands what it takes to make it happen.

"He's a tireless worker, and in a bad economy he's expanded from one bar in Brewster, [N.Y.,] to having [five] others. All his bars have a great feel and décor," said Mr. Cairney, saying the boss is "just a really good guy, really smart, hard-working man who commands the respect and loyalty from those he employs, or at least the ones I know."

But the thing that perplexes is that he still declines to have his place labeled an Irish pub--even with flags of Ireland and the United States waving over the sidewalk and the sign "Failte," which translates from the Irish language as "welcome," at the front door.

Even more than at his other locations, including the one in neighboring Brookfield, he is taking a slightly different approach to the offerings. In New Milford, Mr. O'Connor has more comfort food, with a fair concentration on cheeseburgers and sandwich wraps. Oh, and there's the 12 beers on tap.

The place isn't without the "Maggie's Homemade Sheppard's Pie" or the "Galway Bay Fish and Chips," but look for the prominently-placed "Joe Frazier Philly" cheesesteak sandwich or "The Rocky Balboa" roast beef on toasted garlic bread.

Was it mentioned that Mr. O'Connor was a boxer?

"This demands authentic, an American style bar with an Irish twist," he said about his newest baby. "It's not something ritzy and it's not something tacky, it is right in the middle."

O'Connor's Public House is open daily from 11 a.m., but the kitchen doesn't open until Monday, May 6. Soon it will expand into the space that previously held Salsa, a New Mexican restaurant that moved last year to Bank Street.

Tom's Trivia is 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Wednesday is an open microphone night, and Saturdays will be DJ entertainment. And on Sunday he has planned Irish music with Pat Joe Barney.